The Kuskokwim 300 starts this Friday, and Nome musher Diana Haecker will be running as a rookie. She said the race is a “logical” next step in her mushing development.

“The K300 is very prestigious race, which my husband ran four times and all our mushing friends — Joe Garnie and other old-time Nome mushers — ran,” she said. “So for me, it’s just following their footsteps and hopefully succeeding in doing so.”

Haecker is originally from Germany, and she said she married into mushing. Her husband, Nils Hahn, is also from Germany, and he moved to Alaska for the express purpose of running dogs. The couple met in 2002, and Hahn introduced Haecker to the sport and the lifestyle.

Now, they both work at the Nome Nugget newspaper, and their family has a small kennel of Alaskan huskies. Haecker is training 16 dogs for her 12-dog K300 team.

“They are from the bloodlines of Joe Garnie, Egil Ellis, and the Streepers. And pretty much every one of them, I was there when they were born,” she said. “We raised them from the first breath they take until finally clocking your first 50-mile runs. You see the pups that you raised, and you’re just mighty proud of them and what they can do.”

She started training for the race in September with short, three-mile runs. And as soon as snow was on the ground, she laid stakes outside of Nome, expanding her trails as winter conditions improved.

“And then, of course, there’s always the Iditarod trail. So that’s really convenient to have that right out of my doorstep,” she said. “I can go on the Iditarod trail, and the sky’s the limit.”

But conditions for the K300 may be difficult. Haecker’s been watching the weather, and she said she expects the unseasonably warm temperatures to have wreaked some havoc on the trail. The Bethel area has hovered around 36 degrees Fahrenheit, and the river has seen some overflow near Aniak.

Haecker said she’s trying not to dwell on those elements outside of her control.

“The K300 has a very formidable reputation as being a tough race in terms of conditions,” she said. “Sometimes it’s super windy. Sometimes it’s super warm. Sometimes it’s 40 below, and you fight against headwinds. You’ve got to be ready for it all. It’s a little bit like serving. You’re in God’s hands.”

While Haecker is heading to Bethel on her own and running the race without handlers, she said she’s not really alone.

“You cannot really do this on your own, she said. “This is a whole, big family effort — especially since we’re a small family, a small kennel, and we have jobs on the side as well. That makes it really hard to organize your training schedule.”

She said the support from her family has been invaluable, especially when training ramped up in December. While others were celebrating the holidays, Haecker was either on the trail or under deadline at the paper. She thanked her husband and daughter, Lizzy, for all of their help.

After all the hard work, now all that’s left is for Haecker to run the race.

“My goal is to bring my well-trained dog team to Bethel, race it around the course, and do so in an honorable fashion that allows my dogs and me not necessarily to peak, but to have a very good experience — and finish,” she said.

Haecker leaves for Bethel on Wednesday. The K300 is scheduled to start Friday at 6:30 p.m.

]]>20467USDA to Fund Rural Water Grants and Partner with Kawerakhttp://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2015/09/03/usda-to-fund-rural-water-grants-and-partner-with-kawerak/
http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2015/09/03/usda-to-fund-rural-water-grants-and-partner-with-kawerak/#commentsThu, 03 Sep 2015 17:41:58 +0000http://www.knom.org/wp/?p=18224Rural communities — including Diomede, Kaltag, Kotzebue, and Nunam Iqua — have been chosen for a USDA water and sewer initiative.]]>http://www.knom.org/wp-audio/2015/09/2015-09-03-USDA-Grants.mp3

Melanie Bahnke is back in Nome after meeting with President Obama in Anchorage on Monday. The Kawerak president said she and other Alaska Native leaders spoke with Obama for an hour.

“My message to him was to include people from the Arctic in decisions about the Arctic,” she said. “We can no longer just have people thousands of miles away making decisions for us. We need to be at the table. Tribes need to be included.”

And Wednesday, the White House announced one way the federal government is working to put that advice into practice. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is signing cooperative agreements with four Native nonprofits in western Alaska, including Kawerak — which will receive $46,000.

“Although the funding amount that we’re being provided through this cooperative agreement isn’t huge, it’s a step in the right direction,” Bahnke said. “What USDA is recognizing is that they can’t have a presence everywhere. And they’re trying to take advantage of entities that already exist in rural areas and are delivering quality services to rural residents.”

Kawerak has not signed the agreement yet, but Bahnke said they’ll meet soon with USDA Rural Development to iron out the details, including which services Kawerak will deliver on behalf of the department. She said she expects Kawerak to take on programs aimed at housing improvements, economic initiatives, and the like — as well share information with tribal and municipal leaders and residents around the region.

That partnership wasn’t the only news to come out of Obama’s visit. Bahnke said there’s a host of other opportunities that may benefit the Bering Strait region.

“There are going to be climate change AmeriCorps volunteers, safe water and sewer initiatives, [and] additional research funding available,” she said. “So staff — right now, as we speak — are researching what new opportunities have become available through this historic visit by President Obama.”

While Kawerak investigates potential programs, 15 rural communities have already been chosen for the water and sewer initiative, including Diomede, Kaltag, Kotzebue, and Nunam Iqua. The USDA is providing over $17 million in total to help the 15 communities design new water systems or replace existing infrastructure.

“There are still communities in Alaska that are on honey buckets,” said Jim Nordlund, the Alaska Director for USDA Rural Development. “The incidence of waterborne disease and illness is very high. It’s unacceptable. That money really needs to go to address those dire circumstances. At the same time, we do need to recognize there are older systems that are falling apart and that will need to be replaced at some point.”

Nordlund said USDA is partnering with the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANTHC) to get the initiative off the ground. Shauna Hegna is the Chief Administrative Officer of ANTHC. She said the grants will provide critical help to some of the 4,000 Alaska families without reliable access to safe water and sewer.

For instance, she said three communities on the lower Kuskokwim River — Eek, Kwethluk, and Akiachak — will be getting first-time water service to many homeowners. Meanwhile, Diomede will have its water catchment system appraised to see if there’s a better option for bringing running water to the washateria.

But Hegna cautions that the process will take time. Between engineer evaluations, community meetings, and drawing up designs, she said it’s usually a year before anyone can think about breaking ground. And depending on the community, these grants may only cover the planning phase — meaning new funding would be necessary before construction.

For now, Hegna said the next step is to meet with each of the communities and match them with engineers and project managers.

In its 36th year, Kaiser’s win is the first time in 29 years that a local western Alaska musher has won the mid-distance race. Bethel’s Myron Angstman was the last such winner back in 1986.

Last year’s winner, Rohn Buser, held a commanding lead throughout the first half of the race. But in retracing the trail from Aniak and back to Bethel, Buser’s runs grew longer as his team slowed slightly. Kaiser’s dog team remained consistent, posting runs between checkpoints that differed little from the first half of the race. That allowed Kaiser to whittle down Buser’s seven-minute lead out of the the final four-hour layover at the Tuluksak checkpoint, with Kaiser overtaking Buser about six or seven miles out of the checkpoint.

“This team is so locked into a speed right now,” Kaiser told KYUK radio in Bethel. “Whether they’re fresh or tired, they get locked into that consistent speed.”

Buser also took a wrong turn off the trail just 12 miles outside of Bethel (a mistake his father Martin Buser also made on his way in to the finish line), heading instead southwest into the Church Slough truck road. It remains unclear what, if any, adjustments will be made against the mushers’ times for leaving the trail.

In the end Buser crossed the finish line 13 minutes behind Kaiser. Third place went to Jeff King, who arrived at 5:58 a.m, followed by Tony Browning in fourth and Ken Anderson in fifth.

Mushers from the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta included Mike Williams Jr., who finished in 11th place; Richie Diehl, who finished 13th, and Mike Williams Sr., who was 17th. Isaac and Nathan Underwood scratched in Aniak, as did Kotzebue musher Chuck Schaeffer.

Though Kaiser’s total trail time of just over 35 hours was the fastest in the race’s history, it was also along a shorter trail, with poor conditions on the river resulting in the removal of the Whitefish Lake loop leading into the Aniak halfway point. Race organizer Myron Angstman said this year’s time will be noted with an asterisk in the K300 record books due to the shortened trail.

Kaiser takes home $25,000 for winning the race, from a record-high purse of $123,300.

Two Nome mushers also finished the Kuskokwim 300 this weekend, Rolland Trowbridge and Tara Cicatello.

Finishing in 19th place was Rolland Trowbridge, who was the Red Lantern during his rookie K300 race last year. He was vying for 18th with Scott Janssen, and led him into Tuluksak early Sunday morning. But Janssen gained ground and passed Trowbridge just past Kwethluk.

Rolland Trowbridge on the K300 trail. Photo: Ben Matheson, KYUK.

Trowbridge—who is also KNOM’s Chief Engineer—finished the race with seven dogs on his team. He said he’s proud of his team’s performance but the icy trail meant he and many other mushers were returning home with injured teams.

“I am very happy with how the race went. That being said, the dogs really took a pounding,” Trowbridge said in a phone interview Sunday. “I think everybody’s teams suffered a lot. A lot of dropped dogs. All of my dogs that were dropped were not dropped from exhaustion, they were dropped from injuries. It’s hard to see dogs get hurt, for me. You know I don’t like dropping dogs.”

Trowbridge says those dropped dogs are a result of the fast icy trail, which was so slick he says he stood on his sled’s brake for the first 40 miles of the race to keep his team from going too fast. That’s not likely to be a problem during his next race, the Yukon Quest, which starts in just under three weeks. He said after the icy, sprint-race conditions of the K300 trail, he’ll be happy to have the 1,000-mile trail and longer rest time of the Quest.

The other Nome musher in the race this year was Tara Cicatello, a former KNOM volunteer and handler for Trowbridge. Cicatello finished with seven dogs as the 21st musher in to the finish around 12:40 a.m. Monday.

Tara Cicatello at the K300 finish. Photo: Ben Matheson, KYUK.

“It was a long haul but it was a lot of fun,” she told KYUK’s Ben Matheson. “I don’t know, the dogs did great and I’m very happy with them. This is my first ever sled dog race … you learn about the dedication it takes to be a musher. I give a lot of credit to the people who put this together, to mushers in general, to the dogs running 300 miles. Lots of things you learn.”

Cicatello finished one position ahead of the race’s red lantern, which went to Dee Dee Jonrowe and her puppy team, the last to cross the finish line just after 1:30 a.m. Monday.

KYUK’s Ben Matheson contributed to this story.

]]>http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2015/01/19/bethels-pete-kaiser-wins-kuskokwim-300/feed/214075Mushers Brace for Fast, Icy Trail in Kuskokwim 300http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2015/01/16/mushers-brace-for-fast-icy-trail-in-kuskokwim-300/
Fri, 16 Jan 2015 20:34:18 +0000http://www.knom.org/wp/?p=14024Twenty-five mushers will take off from Bethel over a fast, icy trail to Aniak and back Friday night in the 36th annual running of the Kuskokwim 300.]]>

Twenty-five mushers will take off from Bethel over a fast, icy trail to Aniak and back Friday in the 36th annual running of the Kuskokwim 300.

That’s down from an expected field of 31 mushers after six teams withdrew at Thursday’s pre-race meeting, including Unalakleet’s Donald Towarak.

With almost no snow on the ground along the race’s traditional route, and icy conditions prevailing, race organizer Zach Fansler says crews have staked out a trail that sticks mostly to the truck road along the river this year, cutting out the the Whitefish Lake loop. That means the race is now a direct run to Aniak and back to Bethel. Cutting the loop means a shorter race, too, with race officials estimating the trail to be about 270 miles. Mushers will be doing the race with just 12 dogs this year, compared to the 14 dog limit in previous years.

The field is stacked full of competitive mushers, young and old, including Rohn Buser, the race’s defending champion. Also in the race are some of the biggest names in mushing, including past K300 champions like Jeff King and Martin Buser. Many other top-ten K300 finishers will be in the race as well, including Dee Dee Jonrowe, Lance Mackey, Aaron Burmeister.

Western Alaska mushers may have an advantage on this year’s hard, icy trail. Nome musher Rolland Trowbridge, who described the trail as looking “like Hoth,” the ice planet in the popular Star Wars films, said his team, and the teams of other western Alaska mushers, will have something of a home field advantage from training on similar conditions all year. Still, he said, it will be a difficult race.

“It’s jumbled ice, they’ve cut a trail through it. You can imagine broken sleds, damaged brakes, dogs with sore feet and paws from dealing with slipping on the ice and dealing with an uneven surface that is rock hard,” he said.

“I don’t look forward to falling on that river,” Trowbridge added. “It’s going to be a challenge.”

Trowbridge’s handler, Tara Cicatello, is also running the race with another team of 12 dogs from his 37-strong Maritime Kennels TSR. Trowbridge, who came away from his rookie run of the K300 last year as the race’s red lantern, said he plans to run the first 100 miles of the race in tandem with Cicatello.

Other western Alaska mushers hitting the trail include Kotzebue’s John Baker, and both Mike Williams Sr. and Mike Williams Jr., the latter of whom is running his ninth K300. There’s also Bethel’s Pete Kaiser, and Aniak mushers Isaac and Nathan Underwood and Richie Diehl.

Last year’s winner Rohn Buser crossed the finish line in Bethel at 9:18 Sunday morning. With the fast and shorter trail, race organizers said this year’s finish could come even earlier.

KNOM will have full coverage of the Kuskokwim 300 starting tonight at 6:30, and Saturday and Sunday with updates at 10 a.m., 2 p.m., and 6 p.m.